Political Quotes

“I want to recognize the strong leadership of our co-chair, not only just now in her leadership role in the Democratic Women's Caucus, but throughout her tenure in Congress, Jackie Speier. I thank her for this Special Order hour. Since the start of this pandemic, women have lost more than 2 million jobs, and our labor force is down, for women, to 57 percent. Why does that matter? It is because women's labor force participation--please hear this number--contributes more than $7 trillion to the U.S. GDP every year. So when you talk about building back with women, there is an economic incentive for us to do that in America. The reality is there are far too many women in the United States who care for their children and the elders in their families. They are looking at situations where it is far too expensive. We heard the description of my two colleagues caring for their elder parents. Do you know what that would mean if they didn't have a childcare or elder care system to take care of them? In reality, in America, there are women who call in sick and who take off from work because they have a child that is suffering from cancer or a parent who is dying, and they are the only ones to do this. And they cannot afford to pay for it. We know that caring for our loved ones should not force women to make a choice between the two. In Michigan, 44 percent of the Michiganders live in a childcare desert.…”